Daily Recap — June 21

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”

— Margaret Thatcher

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MELANIA AT THE BORDER

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A day after convincing The Donald to cave to the propaganda media and return children to predators and coyotes, First Lady Melania Trump decided she would go down to the border to find out “what’s real.” One would think she’d ascertain that information before pushing the most powerful man in the world into act on globalist talking points, but better late than never I suppose.

She touched down on McAllen, Texas, today to make a publicly unannounced and hastily planned trip to get a firsthand look at all the OMG HORRIBLE THINGS WE’RE DOING TO THE POOR CHILDREN.

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“I’m headed down to Texas,” the first lady told PDT, remarking that “he was supportive.”

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The first lady’s communications director Stephanie Grisham confirmed the trip would have taken place whether or not PDT had signed an executive order yesterday.

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“This was 100% her idea,” said Grisham of Melania’s decision to travel to Texas, assuring feminists that she hadn’t been ordered to do anything by the evil patriarch Trump. “She wanted to come down.”

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She reportedly intends to inform PDT of what she sees.

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“She will continue to update her husband,” said Grisham, essentially confirming reports that Melania has had an active role with this issue inside the White House, or perhaps the presidential bed at night.

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“I want to thank you for your hard work, your compassion and your kindness,” she said at a roundtable briefing at Upbring New Hope Children’s Shelter, with doctors and medical staff, social workers and other experts on hand.

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“She wants to see what’s real,” Grisham told the Fake News during a briefing en route to Texas, explaining PDT’s decision to visit.

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“As with many topics she will continue to give her husband her opinions,” Grisham said. Like most of the country, the first lady has been watching media reports about children taken from their parents and placed in holding facilities.”

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And like much of the country, she gobbled it up no questions asked. But now that Melania has gone down to see how these kids actually live and learned all the actual facts of the issue, perhaps she can give the POTUS more accurate marching orders in the future.

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Of course, the decision-before-facts approach of the First Lady isn’t worth discussing to the legacy media. Rather, all of the political/media establishment were abuzz about the real issue here — the jacket she wore while leaving Washington.

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She wore an olive green jacket, which said on the back: “I really don’t care. Do U?” in white graffiti-style lettering. She wasn’t wearing the jacket when she landed in McAllen.

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For you ladies who care about fashion and whatnot, the jacket is $39 and “last season Zara,” whatever that means.

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The first lady’s team said there was no hidden meaning behind the sartorial choice.

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“It’s a jacket. There was no hidden message. After today’s important visit to Texas, I hope the media isn’t going to choose to focus on her wardrobe,” Grisham said.

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Ok, look lady. I hear you 100% about the media focusing on BS (hence what caused the trip to TX today in the first place), but when you’re traveling for a photo op to show how much you care about da churren, maybe wearing a jacket with the phrase “I don’t really care” plastered on the back isn’t the best choice.

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Is her stylist a member of the #Resistance or something?.

Just saying, it seems odd.

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For what it’s worth, PDT says the jacket refers to the Fake News.

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But getting back to the real news…..

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The facility opened to the first lady was of course selected keeping in mind press would be accompanying her. Other such facilities around the country have denied access to Democratic lawmakers and media because they keep snooping around looking for things to take out of context so they can paint PDT as *LITERALLY HITLER.*

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While photos and audio from the border have shown small children crying for their parents (who are usually hundreds of miles away), Melania and members of the Fake News were at a facility with children aged 12-17, presumably as a way to prevent the propagandists from manufacturing a “heart-wrenching moment.” If you think the Fake News are above coaching kids ahead of the first lady’s visit, I suggest waking up and sipping a warm cup of reality. At least the White House understood the danger.

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Melania visited a family-processing facility called Upbring New Hope Children’s Shelter, part of Lutheran Social Services of the South, a Department of Health and Human services-overseen facility which operates with the assistance of HHS funding. She was greeted by Upbring CEO Dr. Kirk Senske, who outlined Upbring’s five markers of success: safety, life skills, health, education and vocation.

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The facility opened in 2014 and currently houses 55 children. Of the children — 27 boys and 28 girls — approximately ***10%*** arrived in the United States with their families. That number is about par for the course for new illegal arrivals to the border. So just remember, the government is going to keep kids with shady people who brought them across the border because roughly 10% of them are their parents..

Great policy!

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During a roundtable with officials, Melania asked how often the children speak to their families by telephone, how they are emotionally cared for on arrival and on average how long they stay at the facility before being placed elsewhere.

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The first lady stopped to visit with children in three separate classrooms during her tour.

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“Where are you from?” she asked several of the kids, along with “How old are you?” and “Have you made friends?”

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The children answered, most via a teacher translating from Spanish to English. They’ll continue to need translators once they are released into our country, which will drag down the classrooms in which they enter and worsen the educational environment for the American kids who are already there.

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The children are “usually distraught” when they arrive, Melania was told by officials, but “when they see the environment, they start relaxing.” Probably because the living conditions are better than many Americans enjoy on a daily basis. Basic needs are taken care of — showers, clothing, food, medical care. Then there are plenty of recreational activities to pass the time.

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An administration official briefing the Fake News before the visit said most children at an HHS facility such as this one stay there for approximately 58 days, receiving medical, dental, vision and even psychological care, as well as what the official described as the ability to be inside a “safe and happy environment.”

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The official emphasized the predominant mission at this stage of the process for unaccompanied children is to place them back with appropriate sponsors. Those sponsors can be their parents, but usually aren’t. If the parents are not involved in the judicial or criminal process, sponsors can be other approved family members already living inside the United States.

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If neither of those options is possible, they are placed with vetted foster families or volunteers.

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All of this info was something the first lady wanted to learn in person, said Grisham, who told the media Melania informed her staff — and PDT — that she had decided she needed to see for herself the family intake and unaccompanied children facilities.

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BIG PICTURE:

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My personal rage aside, this is a smart move politically. The first lady engaging with children is always good optics, mindless as it is.

I hope all the professional offense-takers have calmed down now that they’ve been sufficiently appeased.

What’s that? They’re not? Now they don’t want the adults or the kids to be detained?

Gee, whoodathunkit.

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SPEAKING OF ICE

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The filthy Antifa commies are at it again.

A Twitter account linked to the Nebraska branch of Antifa has tweeted out a list of ICE employees compiled from LinkedIn.

The “anti-fascist” facists shared a link yesterday that includes names, photos, job titles, cities and links to ICE employees’ LinkedIn profiles. “Some enterprising hero archived the ICE employees listed on LinkedIn,” said the tweet from Nebraska Antifa, which claims to share news on trap hunting fascists and racists in Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas.

The document was originally compiled by Twitter user Sam Lavigne, who claimed to have “scraped LinkedIn for people that work for ICE.” Lavigne’s original post on Medium has since been removed, but the Nebraska Antifa account linked to an archived version of the list for its followers to access.

Lavigne, who is a New York-based dirty hippie/artist, says that he was “just trying to pose the question” of who is responsible for implementing ICE policies.

In reality, he was “just trying” to get someone killed.

“I’ve downloaded and made available the profiles of (almost) everyone on LinkedIn who works for ICE, 1,595 people in total. While I don’t have a precise idea of what should be done with this data set, I leave it here with the hope that researchers, journalists, and activists will find it useful,” Lavigne wrote in his original Medium post.

Lavigne also tweeted a screenshot of ICE’s chief technology officer, which featured a photo of the man and his son.

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The post spread quickly on a Reddit subgroup of far-left activists, which encourages supporters to find, share and spread private details and information about people they consider to be neo-Nazis or alt right, which encompasses pretty much anyone who disagrees with them.

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Antifa argues that it falls back on violence only as a “last resort” to protect marginalized communities from imminent danger. However, anyone with enough brainpower to lightly toast a piece of bread can see that violence isn’t a last resort, but a primary tactic of their fascist organization.

Ask the Trump supporters who were attacked for the crime of showing up at a political rally whether violence is a “last resort” for Antifa. I’m fairly certain their backs weren’t against a wall from the aggression of the boogey man Trumpers.

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Antifa uses violence as a political tool, which is the very definition of a terrorist organization. The Trump administration needs to treat them as such.

The decent, hardworking Americans who risked their safety to attend Trump rallies for the last several years at least deserve that.

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SMALL GOVERNMENT SIGHTING

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With the uni-party in control of D.C., it’s easy to forget that once upon a time, the GOP was the party of small government. But while few outside of Pepperidge Farm actually remember such a time, a few folks are trying to get us back to our roots.

The White House announced a plan today to combine the Education and Labor departments to form the Department of Education and the Workforce.

The Office of Management and Budget said the proposal would “allow the Federal government to address the educational and skill needs of American students and workers in a coordinated way, eliminating duplication of effort.”

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This should have come as no surprise, as PDT announced his plans to shake up the structure of the government shortly after assuming office in a March 2017 executive order titled the “Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch.”

That order called on the Office of Management and Budget to report whether “some or all of the functions of an agency, a component, or a program are redundant, including with those of another agency, component, or program.”

You want the country to be run like a business? There ya go. It’s actually a beautiful thing.

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The Education Department is one of the smallest Cabinet-level agencies, employing about 4,000 people. It has a budget of $70 billion. Then again, that’s a bit like saying someone is the least annoying Democrat. It doesn’t count for much.

While Rick Perry was running for POTUS in 2011, he (in)famously called for the department to be eliminated at a presidential debate. Perry named the Education Department as one of three he wanted to eliminate but couldn’t recall the third, giving us another in a long line of debate flops to sink a presidential campaign.

“The third agency of government I would do away with—Education…Commerce and, let’s see. I can’t,” he said. After a pause, he said: “Oops.”

Want the best part of that trivia? The third department he was trying to remember was the Department of Energy. Sound familiar? It should. That’s the department Perry now runs.

Life is funny.

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Now for the bad news.It’s unclear whether the restructuring will make it through Congress, which must approve the plan. Republicans have already tried at least twice since Congress established the department in 1980. Remember, folks, once government takes control of something, it’s virtually impossible to get them to relinquish it voluntarily.

THAT’S WHY YOU DON’T LET THEM GET IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. AND NOW OUR KIDS ARE RUNNING AROUND STUPID FROM A GOVERNMENT EDUCATION.

OMB deputy director Margaret Weichert told reporters following the announcement that the combination would allow the government to better prepare young people to enter the work force.

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I’m not counting PDT out on this one, though. He’s accomplished several things legislatively that many never thought would happen, such as the drilling in Alaska and the repeal of the BarryCare individual mandate.

The odds aren’t in his favor, but he has a way of jumping people’s asses until things get done. Go get ’em, PDT!

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IMMIGRATION UPDATE

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It’s a #BigFat I-told-you-so, unfortunately.

Today the House voted down our only hope of getting a conservative immigration bill while postponing a vote on the RINO bill, which is an absolutely dumpster fire of a bill but seen as the one with the most chance of success. Another “tallest midget” designation.

The conservative immmigration bill, or as I like to call it, COMMON ****ING SENSE, collapsed in a 193-231 vote, and the vote on the RINO bill was pushed back until next week to avoid back-to-back defeats.

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The conservative bill would have provided nearly $25 billion for #TheWalll, made steep cuts to legal immigration programs, and provided temporary legal status for the Dacamanians that Dims pretend to care so much about. The RINO bill provides less of each conservative measure so as to make it a joke and would go further for the Dacamanians by offering a pathway to citizenship. I actually had hope for the RINO bill based on the info that was leaking from it earlier in the week, but sure enough, Paul Rino came through with the open-border monstrosity we all knew was on the horizon.

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The RINO bill is way too much of a dumpster fire for conservatives, who vowed to block it. Any conservative with an IQ above Maxine Waters knows that just before the midterms isn’t the time to act like a globalist. The RINOs can do what they want, but folks with conservative electorates will be sent home quickly should they let up on immigration, #ThatICanTellYou.

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“I’m a big fat no. Capital letters,” said Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA). “And I’m going to encourage other people to vote no because it doesn’t stop amnesty.”

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Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said Republican moderates “were in great danger of being exposed for being totally out of touch.”

Uhhhhhhh Louie…..love ya bud, but if you think RINOs are just now in danger of appearing out of touch, well, you’re pretty out of touch yourself. A RINO being in touch would be front page news in Trump world.

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PDT, who has repeatedly urged Congress to act, did not help Paul Rino when he suggested in a tweet that the House was wasting its time by considering either bill. “What is the purpose of the House doing good immigration bills” when Senate Dims are unlikely to pass the Republican bills, he wrote.

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Rep. Ryan Costello (R-PA) said Trump’s tweet — which may simply reflect a White House recognition that the conservative bill was doomed anyway — could sway undecided Republicans to vote against the more moderate bill next week.

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“Rather than encouraging people to vote for it, [Trump] gave them a reason not to vote for it by saying, ‘What’s the point of having the vote if the Senate isn’t going to pass it?’” he said.

GOOD. THAT WAS ONLY ABOUT THE 50TH BEST REASON NOT TO VOTE FOR IT YOU GLOBALIST SCUMBAG.

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You know, I have to laugh to keep from crying.

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Think about this for a moment. These RINOs who are accusing PDT of making it hard to vote for their crappy bill….have any of them stopped to ask why the media went on an all out blitz about children on the border at the same time that the Trump administration was making a push to get immigration passed on the Hill?.

Do they think that might have affected voting at all? Has anyone bothered to ask whether that was just a coinky-dink, or if the Democrat/media complex was at play? Of course not. They’ll criticize PDT 100 times before they can draw breath to say one cross word about their liberal masters.

I’ve had it with these bums.

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BIG PICTURE:

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Sorry folks, I wish I had something different to tell you but I don’t. This bill went down in flames and so will the next. The bill that was voted down today would have been great for the country. Despite the amnesty, the math was on our side and the long-term reforms were excellent.

But they don’t want reform. The GOP wants to keep cashing cheques from the big business lobby and Dims want ready-made votes.

That’s the truth, and until we get more border hawks in Congress, it won’t change.

We have to become more active.

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BUT ALL IS NOT LOST!

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Legislative victories come at a premium these days, considering our razor thin majority that really isn’t a majority at all. But today, there was one to be had. Let’s taco bout it.

The House passed its farm bill today by a vote of 213-211 after weeks of uncertainty over whether leadership would be able to secure enough RINO support within the GOP Conference to pass the measure, which is critical to farm country.

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Last month, Paul Rino pushed the massive $860 billion bill but ultimately failed because he told conservatives to self-fornicate. This time around, he wised up and listened to the demands of the House Freedom Caucus, and thank God, since the HFC is literally the only thing keeping Congress from being fully Democrat.

The HFC helped tank the first vote by withholding support as leverage to force a roll call on a conservative immigration measure. That immigration bill, written by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, is the same one that was voted down today, but clearing that hurdle led the conservative bloc to deliver just enough support to pass the farm bill.

Politics can be complicated at times.

Freedom Caucus support was essential, because Dims were unanimous in their opposition to the bill over new work requirements for food stamp recipients. Twenty Republicans joined with Dims in opposing the bill, but eight Freedom Caucus members flipped their votes from last month and voted in favor, including HFC Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC), who publicly cussed out Paul Rino on the House floor yesterday, thereby becoming my eternal hero.

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Passage of the House farm bill — which would re-authorize programs ranging from nutrition assistance and crop subsidies to rural development and agricultural research — moves Congress one step closer to sending a bill to PDT’s desk before the current legislation expires at the end of September. The Senate is planning to take up its version, which has bipartisan support, as soon as next week, and passage is widely expected — but trouble could be in store when both bills get to conference.

House GOP leadership had to rely solely on Republican lawmakers to carry the measure — the first farm bill to pass either chamber with only one-party support — after Dims revolted over its proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as food stamps. SNAP, which helps more than 40 million Americans buy groceries, accounts for more than three-quarters of the farm bill’s price tag.

House Dims walked away from the bill in committee because it would impose stricter work requirements on between 5 million and 7 million recipients of food stamps while pouring billions of dollars into state education and job training programs.

Passage of the House farm bill was a victory for House Speaker Paul Rino and other Republicans who are eager to advance welfare reform.

But get this. The Senate bill would not make major changes to SNAP.

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And that’s where things get murky.

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How quickly Congress is able to deliver a bill for PDT to sign — the White House has repeatedly backed an on-time farm bill — will largely depend on the ability of House and Senate negotiators to reconcile differences over the food stamp program.

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Trump weighed in on Twitter after the vote, and sent a signal about work requirements for food stamp recipients, saying in part: “So happy to see work requirements included. Big win for the farmers!”

Cue the Fake News running 24/7 infomercials on how Trump wants to OMG STARVE THE CHILDREN. I’m sure Ivanka will scoot on over to the Oval Office to set him straight.

Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX) will be representing the conservative folks in negotiations with the Senate but he’ll be outnumbered. His counterpart on the coochie side, House Agriculture ranking member Collin Peterson (D-MN), has said he will conference with Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) and ranking member Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). All three, of course, oppose making substantial changes to SNAP.

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The Senate farm bill would not seek new work requirements or make significant changes to eligibility standards for SNAP. Instead, their bill focuses on making a series of administrative changes geared in part toward combating fraud.

The House and Senate legislation largely leaves current farm policy intact, which isn’t good. Taxpayer watchdogs, free-market think tanks and environmental groups have all criticized lawmakers for not doing more to rein in spending on commodity supports and the crop insurance program, which total about $13 billion annually. Many crop insurance claims are fraudulent, as some “farmers” only grow enough to say they tried and failed.

If Dims are serious about combating fraud, that would be the first place to start. But we all know they aren’t. Neither are Republicans, apparently, seeing as how the failed framework of the program still exists. Republicans are terrified of taking away a handout just before the midterms. This is how republics fall.

There are some differences between each chamber’s version on payment limits, however, that could ignite heated negotiations. The House farm bill would exempt operations structured as limited liability corporations and S corporations from a $125,000 cap on commodity subsidies and a $900,000 adjusted gross income limit to qualify for those payments. That means owners would no longer have to split subsidies based on what portion of the business they control; instead, they would each be subject to those payment and adjusted gross income limits.

Further, the House legislation would allow additional family members to qualify for commodity subsidies, including first cousins, nieces and nephews. The Senate version doesn’t contain such changes, and Sen. Chuck Grassley is working to secure language aimed at ensuring that individuals who aren’t involved in the day-to-day operations of a farm are not able to receive commodity subsidies.

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Grassley wants to limit the number of individuals who can qualify as being “actively engaged” in farming — and therefore be eligible for payments — under criteria for management that critics argue are now too lenient. Grassley has been fired up since the debate over the 2014 farm bill, when a similar provision was adopted by both the House and Senate but ultimately watered down during conference.

The House farm bill also would take a different approach to conservation programs than the Senate version. Under the House measure, one of USDA’s major conservation initiatives — the Conservation Stewardship Program — would be eliminated, and nearly $800 million over a decade would be cut from the bill’s conservation title. The Senate version, on the other hand, would maintain funding for the title and expand resources for certain efforts, such as the Regional Conservation Partnership Program.

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Folks in farming states have been praying for the current legislation to pass because of anxiety related to trade. While most everyone loves to see our POTUS going to bat for the country to fix bad trade deals, many farmers are having a stressful time because of the possible consequences of tit-for-tat tariffs. Farm-state lawmakers have said an on-time farm bill is needed to provide producers with certainty because they face the potential for major losses if PDT’s trade actions lead to protracted trade wars with China and U.S. allies like the European Union.

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Some U.S. agricultural sectors, including pork, have already been hit with tariffs by China in response to the Trump administration’s decision to slap duties on steel and aluminum imports from the country. Canada and Mexico are also rolling out tariffs in response to the steel and aluminum tariffs. And if Trump proceeds with additional tariffs on Chinese goods — as he has vowed to do unless larger trade talks with Beijing yield progress — Beijing’s countermeasures would inflict greater pain on U.S. farmers and ranchers.

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Conaway referenced that anxiety after the vote, noting that “being able to get the farm bill done on time would help alleviate a modest amount of some of that anxiety, and Rural America deserves us getting it done on time.”

Rural America deserves a hell of a lot more than that, but I’ll save that lecture for another time.

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BIG PICTURE:

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This is a tough one to call.

While the sausage-making related to food stamp reform will undoubtedly be ugly, with reporters and their partners in the propaganda media every day on the Capitol steps accusing PDT of starving children, there is potential for this bill that probably doesn’t exist with most.

There are some farmland Dims who can hardly afford to oppose a make-or-break bill of this nature. This bill is just socialist enough to have a shot at passing.

On a sad note, though, it’s a bad day when American farmers are reliant upon the federal government to make a living. Not only sad, but alarming.

At least they’re trying to crack down on food stamp cheats.

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See you again soon, Trumpers. Hang in there; things will get better.

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There it is, homeskillet. You know the drill: questions, comments, concerns, memes, insults, compliments, stickers, jokes, emojis and, if we have time, complaints.

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